Expandable knitting needle



Nov. 19, 1968 L, A. BECKENSTEIN 3,411,327

EXPANDABLE KNITTING NEEDLE Filed Aug 11, 1966 INVENTOR. Leonard A.Beckenstein gab 1'! 7;; ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,411,327EXPANDABLE KNITTING NEEDLE Leonard A. Beckenstein, Farmingdale, N.Y.,assignor to The Singer Company, New York, N.Y., a corporation of NewJersey Filed Aug. 11, 1966, Ser. No. 571,931 1 Claim. (Cl. 66-123)ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An expandable knitting needle is disclosed ashaving two relatively positionable parts. One part has a pair ofnotches, while the other part has a tooth engageable with either notch,such former needle part being provided with a hooked boss that may beeasily seized to allow the needle parts to be pulled apart forrelatively positioning such needle parts.

This invention relates to knitting needles, and in particular to aknitting needle that may be so extended that its hook and butt may berelatively positioned with respect to each other. Such a feature isdesirable since it allows the effective length of a knitting needle tobe changed as desired, and permits of standard needle parts for avariety of needle applications.

Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a versatileknitting needle that permits the butt of such needle to be located atvarying distances from its hook.

The invention will be described with reference to the figure, whichfigure is an elevational view of a knitting needle according to theinvention.

Referring to the figure, a latch type knitting needle combinationcomprises a hook part and a butt part 12. The hook part 10 is providedwith a hook 13 and a conventional latch 14. The latch 14 is pivotallysupported at a point 18 on the part 10. Disposed along the shank of thepart 10 are a pair of notches 20, 22 adapted to seat a tooth-like member24 on the butt part 12. The needle part 12 has a butt 26 that may bepositioned nearer or farther from the hook 13 as desired by placing thetoothlike member 24 in either the notch 20 or the notch 22. The hookpart 10 is provided with a hooked boss 30 which may be used to pull thehook part 10 out of its needle bed (not shown) so that the tooth-likemember 24 of the butt part 12 may be repositioned from one notch toanother, thereby changing the effective length of the needle.

3,411,327 Patented Nov. 19, 1968 While the invention has been describedin its preferred form, it is to be understood that the words which havebeen used are words of description rather than of limitation and thatchanges within the purview of the appended claims may be made Withoutdeparting from the true scope and spirit of the invention. For example,it would be well within the scope of the invention to place instead atooth on the hook part 10 and a pair of notches on the butt part 12 foraccommodating such tooth; or it would be within the scope of theinvention to change the size and shape of the notches and tooth asdesired.

Having thus set forth the nature of the invention, what is claimedherein is:

1. A knitting needle having a hook and a butt and means for selectivelypositioning said but to one of a plurality of positions with respect tosaid hook, said knitting needle including a first part having said hookthereon and a second part having said butt thereon, one of said partsbeing provided with a'plurality of notches, and the other of said partsbeing provided with a toothlike member, said tooth-like member beingselectively operatively engageable with either of said notches, one ofsaid parts being provided with a hooked boss for disengaging saidtooth-like member from the notches of said part having such notches,whereby said tooth-like member may be repositioned to a different one ofsaid plurality of notches.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,902,752 3/ 1933 Baumgartel66--75 2,626,513 1/ 1953 Lombardi 6650 2,861,441 11/1958 Green et a1.66-50 3,097,510 7/1963 Brown 66--49 X 3,315,494 4/ 1967 Farmer 66--30FOREIGN PATENTS 878,289 1/ 1943 France.

309,465 4/ 1929 Great Britain.

351,046 6/ 1931 Great Britain.

404,601 4/ 1932 Great Britain.

753,211 7/ 1956 Great Britain.

147,763 6/ 1931 Switzerland.

MERVIN STEIN, Primary Examiner.

RONALD FELDBAUM, Assistant Examiner.

